yorkie acting out, please help!

Question
Hello, and thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my question.  I
have recently moved from FL to NYC with my 4 year old Yorkie who has been
neutered only 3 weeks ago.  He seems well and happy, except that he spends
a little more time alone than he used to.  Also his potty training has never
been too solid (though i hoped that would improve with neutering).  I was
happy to see that taking him out 3x a day had prevented accidents in the new
apartment for a whole first week.  The problem is that now he started
eliminating in my bathroom whenever he is left alone, or when I don't let him
sleep in my bed (I am trying to get him to sleep in his own bed next to mine
in the new place)...I also leave a wee-wee pad out for him, but he takes no
notice.  How can I effectively change his behavior to sleeping in his own bed
without making him angry and causing him to act out?  Any help would be so
appreciated!
Sabina

Answer
Your dog may be developing a small case of separation anxiety (vis a vis, urinating in the bathroom when left alone, that's a "call back" marking signal), quite common with a move.  Also, he has a bit of a Napoleon complex, being your bed partner.  Teaching a dog to sleep separately from you is rather like the old "go to place" training: one must associate a strong reward using positive reinforcement (the clicker is perfect for this, go to karen pryor's web site) with the dog going TO his new bed, then sitting on it, then lying on it, then staying on it, working slowly with a "go to bed" or other phrase up to the point where he will happily run to it and plop down and stay there.  This will take several weeks (at least) and tons of patience.  Furthermore, using positive reinforcement, work for a strong "sit" (using another word as most owners have created latent inhibition -- dog will never do it -- to most command words) and, once he's acquired a 100% successful response (also several weeks) make him earn everything: going in/out, being fed, being petted, etc, thereby promoting yourself psychologically and giving the dog more emotional security (circumventing developing separation issues) and a stronger position from which to command him to sleep in his own space.

Regarding the urination, using a belly band on small breed dogs often works wonders.  Very quickly the dog understands that urinating (or attempting to) wearing one will retain urine close to the body and this is contradictory to the need most dogs have to separate themselves from their own urine and feces.  This belly band should be worn only when you are at home to observe that he doesn't remove it.  His inappropriate urination in the bathroom should be thoroughly cleaned and totally ignored.  Reinforce appropriate elimination outdoors (NO WEE WEE pads..that's a double message!)